I am in the process of applying for a home mortgage for the first time and something happened that I found a bit odd. Here's the sequence of events:
- Before talking to any lenders, I get my credit score from Equifax to have an idea of where I am at.
- I talk to a couple of lenders and get a couple of quotes. One of the lenders runs a credit inquiry to all 3 credit agencies (I know only one lender did this, because I subscribe to an identity theft protection service that alerts me to all inquiries).
- I ended up deciding to go with that lender. They run a second credit inquiry on all three agencies almost exactly one month apart from the first one.
- I get a Equifax credit report in the mail from the lender for the second inquiry. My credit score is a whooping 30 points lower than when I checked at 1. Nothing else happened in this one month period that would justify a credit score change.
- The lender asks me to justify in writing the first credit inquiry that they did!
My main question is, is it usual for the bank to do those two credit inquiries so close together? Point 5 in particular makes me believe they made a serious mistake.
If this is not usual, what recourse do I have? I have sent them an email asking for an explanation and I am waiting to hear back. Can I get them to clear up what happened with credit agencies? Is there some consumer protection agency I can report this to?